Everything and Nothing Plus Some Pretty Photos

Author: Bulldog Travels

Greetings from a foggy Sacramento morning. Typically the weather turns for us here around Halloween. I feel likes it’s only just starting now a bit late. Running errands in Sacramento today made it feel like winter especially stumbling upon workers getting the Christmas tree ready for the tree lighting at the state capitol.

The capitol sits on a splendid park which I need to properly photograph for you one of these days. I’ve photographed countless weddings here and photoshoots on the capitol steps. I suppose because of that I never head down for fun to shoot the park.

The tower bridge is an icon of Sacramento. Its beautiful golden color shines bright day and night. The Crocker Art Museum is a world class art museum which has grown leaps and bounds over the years. It’s a must visit location when in Sacramento. Stroll along the river walk when you are done and finish at one of the wonderful eateries in historic old town Sacramento.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium is an institution that I’ve been visiting since I was born. It is a world class aquarium highlighting every part of the sea and it’s glorious creatures. It keeps getting better and better despite the heavy crowds. One could, and likely should, spend multiple days visiting the aquarium early in the morning to avoid crowds and frustration. Below are a few highlights from my humble iPhone. In the afternoons and evenings, to avoid crowds, visit the beautiful Los Lobos State Park, Carmel-by-the-sea or eat in the quaint Pacific Grove. The touristy area immediately surrounding the aquarium is a bit too peoply for me so evacuate and head for the surrounding charm.

Have you ever been? The aquarium has changed so much over the years. They do wonderful work and deserve every ounce of success.

You must go here. It’s crowded but the hot fudge, my friends, is worth the wait. Not many touristy places will get my endorsement, especially in San Francisco, but you must trust me here. If any part of your tooth is sweet bring them here.

Interestingly enough you can get a hot fudge Sunday just like this at AT&T park while watching the Giants play. Who needs beer and hot dogs when they can have this?

I recently posted a postcard from Sacramento so I though I would shine some light on the city to the north, Roseville, California.

Roseville has roots in the railroad and the telephone. I mostly drove right past as a kid on the way to Lake Tahoe and ignored it altogether. But, a revitalized old town is a fun draw. Food trucks, Irish bars, tattoo parlors, craft beer, theatre and a few very solid restaurants are bringing life back to downtown Rosy.

Miserable cup of Joe but A+ ambiance.

Wasn’t expecting too see this flag here…

Love the image on the side of these locomotives

Who wouldn’t want to work remotely from here?!

I’ll be the first to admit that pizza on the west coast can barely be classified as pizza but this place makes a solid effort!

I really enjoy coming here partially because of the ambiance and partially because the crowds tend to gravitate towards the mall and newer areas. It was the perfect place to relax for a quick afternoon stroll with Mr.Baby.

Sometimes just getting out of the house for some fresh air can turn in to something delightful. The High Hand Nursery in Loomis, California is a lovely place to shop for your garden and a wonderful place to enjoy a quasi-botanical garden. And, they have a pretty darn good restaurant too!

My little one is so interested in animals. He is fearless which makes me happy and scares me equally as much.

I’ve been lamenting lately that it seems we have fewer butterflies than when I was a kid. Anyone else notice that?

Sometimes you randomly run in to a stranger with a bird who teaches your cousin how to make it play dead! (Can’t make this stuff up.)

The trip out turned in to my favorite thing to do. Photograph flowers. Not too shabby for cell phone shots.

Greetings from my home town Sacramento, California! I’m still alive. I’m just over here sequestered in my house raising a tiny human and working in between with the occasional break to eat and sleep. Thank you for your patience with my lack of posts and lack of travels.

I headed downtown this morning for an appointment and snapped some random Sacramento photos of things not everyone would pick to highlight my town. I’ve never really posted much about Sacramento so I finally took a moment to focus on a few locations and things that have always been the background of my runnings around. These are some places I enjoy for one reason or another. The art, the old signs, the institution of it, or the plane weirdness emitted.

Yup. That’s a cow on the roof.

Are we in Greece or Mexico with these color?

Flipper!

The Tower theatre across the street from what was the original Tower Records and Books

Manchester has me thinking about the U2 concert I attended last week. As I have previously mentioned on this blog I love the band U2. They always have been my favorite and always will be. They are touring currently to celebrate 30 years of their Joshua Tree album. I have been excited about this concert for months.

It’s easy to look at the concert a little differently this week. Some of the most perfect music ever uttered from Bono’s lips and Edge’s fingers happened on that album and that night. Some of the most creative and impressive lighting and video displays ever seen. An aura of nice Bay Area people smiling and happy enjoying the moment on a breezy and perfect weeknight. We were able to safely go home.

Levi Stadium in Santa Clara holds 70,000 people. 70,000 souls I say! That is more than the population in the city in which I live! I can’t help but recall during the concert that this event would be the perfect place for a terrorist attack. There were armed police inside and outside of the venue with semi-automatic weapons keeping us safe. But, I don’t recall ever attending an event with this amount of law enforcement staff and artilery before. Security was so tight I was not even allowed to bring a small purse in to the stadium. But worst of all when the concert was over all 60 some odd thousand people went for the exits at the same time. Everyone filtered towards one of very few exits to an overfilled parking lot which is exactly where the attack happened in Manchester. Manchester. Young women. Eight year old child.

My heart goes out to the victims and to Ms. Grande who must feel terrible. I recently chatted with a friend about this. We should keep going to concerts, right? We should keep going to public events and malls, and vacations, right? We can’t let them win. No matter how young the victims. No matter how much I shake my head at politicians and how useless they all can be at times. We have to live our lives. Sad this is the new reality for us. How long will we be making generic statements like “We can’t let them win?”

Is any of this business preventing you from living your life as you would like? Or are you sticking it to them and going about your activities and travel as normal? Whatever the “new normal” may be these days…

The French Presidential Election has my mind in Paris again. I was reminded by the Captain over at Equinoxio that I never posted photos from the beautiful Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House for those of us non French speakers). When I was in Paris last year my friend and I took in the ballet at this magnificent baroque opera house. I am afraid the beautiful building outshined the performance hands down. The ballet was probably the most excruciating artistic experience of my life, not because it is a ballet, but because it was a terrible nightmare inducing ballet. But, the price of admission was worth it just to see the gilded architectural pomp and circumstance.

On the evening of the ballet we walked up the stairs from the subway to view the sun setting on the beautiful exterior. A street musician was playing a piano like a champ entertaining the crowd.

Inside the grand staircase greets visitors who may never see the artistry of the tiled floors only because they cannot lower their chins from all of the looking up. The lighting makes you feel like you are at a candlelight performance or in a Victorian BBC drama. The ceilings are a work of art by themselves.

The Grand Foyer looks like it belongs to royalty. Hollywood, why haven’t you filmed a mini series in this room? Spectacular balls, dinner parties, dance parties, this room is mind blowing.

The auditorium, while it reminds me of the Muppets, it is a place to see and be seen. The acoustics are superb while the views might be slightly impeded depending on your position in your box. But one thing is for sure, everyone no matter where they are seated, can look up and will have their breath taken away by the chandelier and the Marc Chagall ceiling.

In my own humble way I hope France remembers itself and how beautiful and magnificent it is in this important political moment. It must remain a part of the rest of Europe so it can continue sharing pieces of perfection like this architectural masterpiece.

*My apologies for the simple photos. They were taken with my iPhone since the place is obviously too fancy for my good bulky cameras and we were too dolled up for the ballet to lug my equipment around. It’s hard to pry the camera out of my hands when I’m traveling! But I hope you will understand.

To read more on my French travels click here! To read and view photos of the one and only Giverny click here!